Digital home certification announced

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has rolled out what it claims is the first certification recognising digital home resellers in Australia.

The Digital Home Technology Integrator+ (DHTI+) program is designed to help integrators skill up in configuring, integrating, maintaining and troubleshooting a home network. It covers networking devices around the home, including wireless Internet connectivity and Internet-enabled kitchen appliances, media servers, lighting, security systems, airconditioning systems and digital TV set-top boxes. The certification was unveiled in conjunction with the Consumer Electronic Association in the US in February. It is based on industry benchmarks.

CompTIA regional director, Henry Louey, said it wanted to give people foundation knowledge on all elements of the digital home. It was also about assisting integrators regardless of whether they had an IT, telco, CE or electrical heritage.

He claimed there was a skills gap emerging in the digital home integration space.

"We're talking about incremental revenue - providers have been missing out because they didn't have the skills set," Louey said. "This is about giving them the underlying knowledge. For telco providers, we will give them access on electrical issues and IT; for people in the electrical industry, we'll help them understand ICT.

"It's not designed to make everyone experts in any particular field, like AMX [analogue multiplexing] for example. It'll provide convergent information on how it all fits together."

Louey said it was now working through the course material with local training providers, Excom and Dimension Data, as well as TAFE institutions. The base course is expected to run for three days and will include both self-study and classroom training.

Louey said the material was vendor neutral and complementary to leading industry certifications from organisations like Microsoft or Cisco.

"If integrators want do more specific training, this will give them a base line," he said.

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